


Reception

by unprofessionalbard



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: actually technically during ep 69, i reread ep 69 for this and im a Mess™, i wouldnt call this a character study but its SOME KINDA study, mentions of most canon couples, rating is for swears again, takes place immediately post ep 69
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-04
Updated: 2018-02-04
Packaged: 2019-03-13 12:13:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,831
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13570374
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unprofessionalbard/pseuds/unprofessionalbard
Summary: "It was one of the happiest days of all of your lives, and even happier days were to come, because that was the world that you made. That was the ending you earned."Taako chugs some wine. Lup teaches Angus to fantasy jitterbug.





	Reception

**Author's Note:**

> written for twinsweek day seven (post canon). it's uhm, a lot less twins centric than i started out intending it to be but i cycled through a bunch of scrapped ideas before deciding i wanted to end the week on a high, tone of work wise. no angst today everyone!
> 
> and before we get into i wanted to say i've had a lot of fun this week making content, and now that i'm done i actually have time to read what everyone else has been writing/look at all the cool art on tumblr! anyway, thanks for tuning in this week, i'm sure i'll be back on my 'updates-once-every-three-months' bullshit in no time.

Carey and Killian’s wedding reception is a party to go down in history. 

The ceremony itself is beautiful, of course. Magnus cries. Cries more than either bride, actually. Taako files that information away to make fun of him and later steps on Merle’s foot when he tries to bring up Taako getting teary-eyed. Nobody needs to fucking know that. 

The reception has an open bar, which is pretty much all Taako feels is necessary to say on the subject. They mostly keep it together, since it’s a wedding, and also there are children here. Magnus gets into a chugging contest with Hurley, Sloane, and to most peoples’ surprise, Davenport, that has to be stopped because none of them know what moderation means. Everyone is very lucky they can handle their liquor. 

Merle and Taako insist on telling the story about how Magnus got fucked up before their first mission with the Bureau. 

“And he said— Avi! Avi, what did he say?”

Avid ignores Magnus’s halfhearted protests and grins. “Mostly just _‘Avi be cool’_ a whole bunch. And he invited me to go on the mission. Regular drunk stuff.”

“Et tu, Avi?” says Magnus, and Taako talks over both of them. 

“No, no— Avi, that’s not at all accurate. Magnus was fucked up out of his mind. He said _‘wink’_ out loud!” Taako does an admittedly poor mimicry of Magnus’s voice, and Magnus protests that he sounds nothing like that, but he’s drowned out by Lup losing her mind laughing next to him. 

The music is beautiful. Lup asks Killian about it and Killian offers a melancholic smile. “Some of the pieces are Johann’s,” she says, and Lup knows this isn’t her loss, not really, but they all know the story and they all have their own weights to carry so she reaches out a hand and squeezes Killian’s. There is a quiet moment where they listen to the music swell, and then Lup comments on how beautiful the wedding is and how it’s too bad Magnus broke that champagne bottle and put basically a whole section of the floor out of commission for the night. Killian laughs. 

“That’s sort of how it is around here.”

“Oh, tell me about it.” 

Taako runs into Lucretia while filling up his plate with snacks. There’s still something tight between them, a distance that, if Taako is honest, he’s not sure he’s ever going to close. He’s not sure how Lup did it so quickly. 

But tonight, he doesn’t want that. It’s tiring. He can see the way Lucretia’s shoulders tense at his approach, knows how she never knows what to say anymore.

“Hope you didn’t want the last brownie because that motherfucker is mine, uh-thank you,” he says, grin wide, tone light. He reaches for it, but Lucretia is just a little quicker and reaches under his hand to snatch the brownie. And, after looking at Taako’s face for a split second, she does something that stops Taako’s petty quip in its tracks. 

She stuffs the entire brownie in her mouth. 

Taako howls with laughter, and even though Lucretia is covering her mouth with her hand, Taako can tell she’s smiling. 

Magnus has taken to doing this “fun” thing where he insists on dancing with everyone. It started with Carey, of course, because she’s his best friend, and then Killian, and then Merle made a smartass comment and so here he fucking is, butting in other people’s dances, spinning them badly a couple times and then leaving. 

“Nu-uh,” says Taako when he sees Magnus coming, wrapping his arms around Kravitz’s neck. “Abso-fucking-lutely not. No, no no, no.” Kravitz is laughing, which seems in poor taste to Taako, seeing as he’s not going to be the victim of Magnus’s horrifying dancing. Or at least, not yet. 

Magnus puts his hands on his hips and gives what Taako can only assume he thinks are puppy dog eyes. Taako turns away and looks at Kravitz, who is still laughing. 

“Promise me you’ll never leave me,” jokes Taako, jerking his head in the direction Magnus, and Kravitz looks at him with stars in his eyes, his voice a little too honest and heartfelt when he responds. 

“Of course. Promise.”

And fuck, how can Taako _not_ kiss him now?

“Okay, fine, I get it!” says Magnus, and when Taako and Kravitz break apart, they can see he’s roped Barry into this, probably with help from Lup, who looks like this couldn’t be funnier. Barry actually doesn’t look seem too pressed about the whole thing, but of course he wouldn’t.

While Barry is gone, Lup finds Angus. He’s really pretending to not be too tired, bless him, but it’s getting late now, and he has to stifle a yawn. 

“Almost time to head home?”

“Well,” Angus looks like he’s about to protest, but sighs instead. “Probably.”

Lup ruffles his hair, and Angus pretends to be annoyed, but beams at her after a second. 

“Tell you what,” she says, extending her hand, “You’ve been missing out dancing all night. I think they’re playing fantasy jitterbug up next.”

“I don’t know how to do that, Aunt Lup.”

Lup laughs. “Oh, I don’t either. It’s not like anyone here knows any better. And you know if you don’t dance with me, Magnus is going to come looking next, and he will absolutely step on your feet. He’s stepping on Barry’s feet right now.” Angus peers around her, and sure enough, Magnus is still an awful dancer. Hurley says something as she and Sloane whirl by, and Magnus flips her off in response. 

“Okay ma’am,” says Angus, and Lup lets the ‘ma’am’ slide this one time, too formal or not. By the fourth time Lup spins him, Angus can’t stop laughing, and when the song is over, he heads home with Mavis, Mookie, and Merle. 

It’s late when Taako sits down in the empty seat next to her, carrying a half empty wine glass. Several of the guests have already headed home— they’re down to maybe twenty people here, max. Lup doesn’t bother to count. 

“Barry is talking about nerd shit with my boyfriend,” complains Taako. 

“Are you sure Kravitz isn’t talking about nerd shit with my boyfriend?” 

“Yes, because that would imply the nerd shit started because of Kravitz, and I refuse to accept that when your boyfriend is so much more of a nerd than mine.” 

“Hmm. If that helps you sleep at night.” 

Taako kicks her under the table. Lup giggles, and they are silent for a moment, looking out at the party winding down.

“Have a good night?” asks Lup, and Taako looks at her with a gaze too old for his body, and she knows hers matches. 

“Yeah,” he says finally, smile open and honest, if a little worn.

Even now, a year later, they’re healing. Some days it feels like they’re made of open wounds and the world is a salt shaker. Sometimes Lup can’t be in rooms without windows and Taako’s hands shake while he cooks, sometimes when Taako hugs her Lup can feel the desperate fury of the years he forgot. They’re all like that some days— too quiet or too loud, disconnected, caught up in too many memories or scrambling because there’s not enough. 

Taako clinks his wine glass against Lup’s and takes a sip. Lup smiles, and takes a drink from her own glass. Taako raises his eyebrows over his drink and tips his head back to empty the rest of his glass. 

“Okay, no,” says Lup, putting her glass back on the table. Taako shrugs, and lightning quick grabs her glass too, downing it before Lup’s protests are even out of her mouth. By the time she snatches it back from him, it’s empty, and he’s wearing a self satisfied grin. Lup really tries to look like she’s all annoyed and not amused, but she’s pretty sure it’s not coming across. “Asshole!”

“You weren’t going to drink it!”

“I wasn’t going to chug it! This is a respectable gathering!”

“Lup, you’re my sister and I love you. But I really feel like when Magnus broke that champagne bottle, we all stopped pretending to be respectable people.” 

Lup sticks her tongue out at him, and he laughs. 

They bandage up wounds. They work through panic attacks. They wake up every day and they get better and the world around them grows more and more beautiful as everyone else heals too. As everyone pours the kindness and the hope they have into their homes, into each other. Bad days still hit hard, still crumble walls and force backwards steps. There’s no escaping that reality. But they’re never going to be bad enough for it to no longer be worth it to weather the storm, to grit their teeth and take a stand. 

It’s worth it for this. For this moment, sitting at this table, laughing about Taako’s stupid bit. For this night, where Carey and Killian got married. For the years they have left, for the moments they had before this one. 

After a few moments, Taako and Lup get to their feet. The last dance of the night is announced and Taako vanishes to find Kravitz. Carey and Killian are on the floor already, eyes closed, swaying back and forth together, looking for all the world they forgot anyone else was in the room. 

Lup doesn’t hear Barry approach. He clears his throat next to her and offers an arm to her, and she takes it wordlessly, draping her arms over his shoulders as he whisks her back onto the dance floor for the final time that night. 

“Feet hurt from Magnus’s bad dancing?”

“He’s really not that bad,” starts Barry, but he sucks in a breath and then admits, “Yeah. Stepped on a few toes.” He smiles when Lup laughs. “It was fun. Part of the night.”

“Not for me.”

“Yeah, I have no idea how you got out of that one.” 

On an impulse, Lup leans in and kisses him. Barry kisses back, wrapping his arms tighter around her waist when she grabs his lapels. 

“What was that for?” says Barry, when she pulls back. “I mean. I’m not complaining.”

Lup looks around. At Carey and Killian, who seem to be an embodiment of romance, and light, and happiness. At her brother, staring at his boyfriend with a joy she otherwise sees so little in him. At Magnus, laughing in the corner with Avi and Lucretia. At Barry, who she’s had so much time with, years and years and years, an eternity of this feeling that sits at the base of her ribcage. Friends. Family. 

“Tonight’s a night for love,” she says simply, and Barry laughs and pulls her in again. 

Time makes the details of this night fuzzy, as it is wont to. But when they look back at it, they remember happiness, and joy, and people they care about. 

They remember love. And in the end, that’s all that matters.

**Author's Note:**

> i just wanted to say thanks again to everyone who's been reading, and @twinsweek for hosting! i actually broke my nano word count from last november this week. granted it was only about 10k but that's still pretty impressive progress-wise. 
> 
> i think one of the main draws for taz, for me anyway, was the hope in the story. the happy ending. it's why i'm still so invested in the story. and i had like six ideas for how to end this week and all of them were depressing and i just COULDNT do it. i feel like this is riffing really hard off of canon but at the same time it is absolutely the most important part of canon in my eyes so once i started i couldn't stop till i had the words down. 
> 
> you can find me on tumblr @crewmanjeeter where all i do is not be over taz. thanks for joining me this week!


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